Wrestling

I am the lead investor, a supporter and a backer of All Elite Wrestling, and I anticipate great things today and into the future for AEW and everyone who has worked passionately on this week’s launch. I know AEW will be welcomed by wrestling fans here in the U.S. and throughout the world who are ready for something new and authentic. AEW will work hard to deliver on that promise.

As important, I am the father – the proud father – of Tony Khan, who will serve in a leadership role at AEW during the 2019 launch and in the years ahead. Tony will assemble a great team to take AEW over the top, for the benefit of everyone who loves the wrestling industry, while continuing to serve in his current capacities with the Jaguars and Fulham.

AEW will operate as an organization completely independently from my other interests. It will not deter attention or divert resources from any of my businesses, teams, projects or investments. At the same time, AEW will enjoy the same full commitment I given to everything and everyone in my life – my family and friends, my business and, in recent years, to sports, hospitality and now entertainment.

TONY KHAN STATEMENT ON AEW, Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Wrestling fans are a community unlike most others. I’ve been a part of this community since I was 7 years old, and I can tell you that wresting fans see the world every day through a special lens. We see wrestling in Hollywood films and tv shows, we see elements of wrestling in the presentation of sports and in the marketing of grandiose star athletes, and we certainly see wrestling in politics.

The wrestling community is a constant; its members are diverse, we are physically located on all corners of the planet, yet we are constantly connected. Recently, a new family has formed, bonded by love and respect for wresting but armed with a vision and resources that have never before been available to the wrestling community. Our objective is to connect our community closer than ever before through All Elite Wrestling, or AEW.

AEW does not mean any less of a continued commitment to existing obligations and duties that I have, or my family has, to our business and sports interests. That will never be the case. What’s important is that every individual decision we make as family, whether it’s ownership or investment in a team or property, is 100 percent beneficial to those specific interests. I will always welcome that accountability and responsibility, as nothing is more important than serving our supporters and friends.

AEW will launch with a roster of the top wrestlers in the world. While they’ll clash in what will be some of the most intense and fast-paced contests ever sanctioned in the squared circle, they’ll also share a common goal: to make this the true golden age, to make this the greatest time ever to be a wrestling fan. Likewise, as a business, by treating our wrestlers with respect and warmth, we also seek to make this the golden age for the performers themselves.

I urge everyone who believes in what we’re doing, or wants to believe in dreams coming true, to support AEW by spreading the word and passing the wrestling bug onto someone else. My message: Get in on the ground floor with AEW today and help lead our movement to grow the wrestling community and ensure that the voices of the wrestling fans, their creative minds and their remarkable ideas, will always be heard.

TORONTO – IMPACT Wrestling, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp., announced today an significant expansion of its digital presence, launching a live stream of the weekly two-hour IMPACT!flagship show on Twitch Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET when it also premieres on Pursuit Channel across the U.S.

The premiere episode of IMPACT! on Twitch debuts Friday, Jan. 11 at 10:00 p.m. ET on IMPACT Wrestling’s official Twitch channel – www.twitch.tv/impactwrestling. The show will feature the immediate aftermath from Homecoming in Nashville, IMPACT Wrestling’s first major pay-per-view event of the year.

“IMPACT Wrestling’s new broadcast arrangement on Pursuit Channel has given us the flexibility to develop distribution channels to bring our show to the cord cutters in our fan base,” said Ed Nordholm, president of IMPACT Wrestling. “We saw double digit growth in our digital audience in 2018, consistently setting and then breaking new records for engagement across our various digital and social media assets. Since initially partnering with Twitch last year with our own channel, we have been committed to expanding our presence and creating a dedicated community on the platform and fans have responded, leading to our decision to bring our flagship show to Twitch.”

IMPACT! showcases top professional wrestling stars such as IMPACT World Champion Johnny Impact, who starred in the most recent season of the hit CBS show Survivor, plus Brian Cage, Eli Drake, Moose, Eddie Edwards, Sami Callihan, Pentagon Jr., Fenix, Rich Swann, the high-flying X-Division and the Knockouts, including Champion Tessa Blanchard, Taya Valkyrie, Rosemary, Allie and Su Yung. Since its inception in 2002, IMPACT! has been a leading destination for professional wrestling fans, televised globally in 120 countries, while growing its popularity and reach on YouTube, Twitch, Pluto and social media platforms.

About IMPACT WrestlingIMPACT Wrestling is one of the world’s largest wrestling entertainment properties, creating more than 200 hours of original content annually across television and other digital platforms. IMPACT Wrestling specializes in creating premium content, events, products, merchandise and music, as well as the management and promotion of professional wrestlers. The roster features such greats as World Champion Johnny Impact, Eli Drake, Moose, Eddie Edwards, Sami Callihan, Brian Cage, Pentagon Jr., Fenix, Rich Swann, the high-flying X-Division, plus the Knockouts, including Tessa Blanchard, Su Yung, Allie, Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie. Its highly successful flagship, IMPACT!, is broadcast globally, including Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Pursuit Channel in the United States, Fight Network and GameTV in Canada, Sony ESPN in India, 5Spike and Fight Network in the United Kingdom, SuperSport in Africa, and MX52 in Mexico. Additional IMPACT Wrestling content also airs on Fight Network in the U.S., which is available on cable systems such as Altice One, Suddenlink, Centurylink, Armstrong Cable, among others. IMPACT Wrestling also streams a 24-hour channel on Twitch.tv and is a top 10 sports video producer on YouTube with over 2 million subscribers, 36 million monthly views and 1.5 billion all-time views. IMPACT Wrestling launched the exclusive Global Wrestling Network (GWN) app in October 2017, showcasing over 3,000 hours of library and current programming, as well as content from leading independent professional wrestling organizations around the world.

Commentary: This is a good move for Impact as it allows more people all over the world to be able to watch the show live. It is also a potentially bad move for them with their new TV partner, Pursuit HD. This could ultimately cannibalize their live audience.

Editor’s Note: The line “Do they need TV for long term growth? Possibly. ” has been edited as it was an original misrepresentation of our stance. The original line was “Do they need TV for long term growth? Absolutely. “

Being The Elite’s Youtube Channel has officially announced the launch of All Elite Wrestling. The promotion is said to be owned by Tony Khaun with Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks said to be on the executive team as well as talent for the promotion. More news on talents, distribution, and more are set to be announced soon. With all this hype, AEW has left more questions than answers.

Will They Have or Need TV?

This is a question that has been asked time and time again: Can AEW get some sort of TV distribution deal? Will they need a TV deal? Me personally, I don’t think they will need a TV deal. At least in the short term.

Is a TV deal necessary for the promotion to get off the ground? No. I don’t think so. I’m not sure how many people ordered All In on the Fite app, but I’m sure that collectively AEW can start running shows that can make them profitable.

Think about this: On Twitter, they have a combined 1.8M followers. On Youtube, they have over 300,000 followers. If 10% of them sign up for a Patreon at $15 a month, that would be $2.7M a month or $32.4M a year. Of course, this is using the rule of 10% and hoping that 10% of their following would actually sign up for this.

That $32M a year could fund Youtube shows. They can find venues where they can sell out and make money on the ticket, sell ad-space online, and of course their merch store would be a huge money maker for them.

Do they need TV for long term growth? Possibly. However, saying they need TV right off the bat to launch is silly.

I actually think that having fans being able to go “all in” with the guys is a great idea. Gives the audience a sense of ownership and a sense of them being apart of the team. No wrestling company has done that.

Who, Other Than Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, And SCU, Will They Feature?

With the announcement, no real announcement of any talent signings were made. This leaves us to wonder, who else will AEW bring in to fill up the roster?

This is important. Cody has come out and said that he plans to not wrestle as much in the future. The 33-year-old son of a plumber’s son might want to go full time for another handful of years before slowing down.

The Young Bucks are a tag team. Will they eventually want to go solo and try to compete for the top titles in AEW? Or will they stick together as a unit?

What Is ‘Double or Nothing’?

The AEW team has announced that Double or Nothing is coming. Will it be their launch event? Will it just be the planned rally?

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We here at Multi Media Mouth are saddened to report the passing of WWE Hall of Famer, “Mean” Gene Okerlund.

Okerlund is one of the most well known names in sports-entertainment history, having made his debut with the WWE in 1984. If you were a fan of WWF/E back in the 80’s and early 90’s, you saw Okerlund conduct hundreds of interviews, including some with the biggest stars like Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant, The Undertaker, and The Ultimate Warrior, just to name a few.

“Mean Gene” was not just a stellar interviewer, he was also a host, commentator and even a singer, having performed the National Anthem at the very first Wrestlemania in 1985. Okerlund got his start as a sports-entertainment broadcaster with AWA, he also worked for WCW in the 90’s after his run with WWF/E.

“Mean” Gene Okerlund was 76 years old, he will be greatly missed by many.

TORONTO | LUVERNE – IMPACT Wrestling, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp., announced today it has entered into an agreement to broadcast its flagship weekly two-hour program IMPACT! nationally across the U.S. on Pursuit Channel, the most widely distributed outdoor network and one of the fastest growing channels in the country.

Beginning on Friday, Jan. 11, featuring the aftermath of Homecoming, IMPACT Wrestling’s first marquee pay-per-view event of the year, IMPACT! will air weekly on Pursuit Channel on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET.

“Pursuit Channel is a natural fit for IMPACT!” said Ed Nordholm, president of IMPACT Wrestling. “It has a passionate viewership base that correlates strongly with our core audience, and is one of the few broadcast destinations that is expanding its footprint, enjoying a 15% increase in broadcast distribution this year alone. With IMPACT Wrestling coming off a tremendous year of audience growth globally and positive fan engagement, we look forward to leveraging our respective resources to bring fans more of the wrestling content they want to see: tougher, edgier action.”

“Pursuit Channel is pleased to welcome IMPACT Wrestling into our Friday night lineup of popular shows,” said Rusty Faulk, CEO and founder of Pursuit Channel. “IMPACT Wrestling programming is perfect for our audience, which enjoys adventurous content to feed their wild side. We look forward to a long partnership and providing our fans with new and exciting world-class content while expanding IMPACT Wrestling’s audience to a new base.”

Showcasing top professional wrestling stars such as IMPACT World Champion Johnny Impact, who starred in the most recent season of the hit CBS show Survivor, plus Brian Cage, Eli Drake, Moose, Eddie Edwards, Sami Callihan, Pentagon Jr., Fenix, Rich Swann, the high-flying X-Division and the Knockouts, including Champion Tessa Blanchard, Taya Valkyrie, Rosemary, Allie and Su Yung, IMPACT! has been a leading destination for professional wrestling fans, televised globally in 120 countries since its inception in 2002, while growing its popularity and reach on YouTube, Twitch, Pluto and social media platforms.

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Formerly HeadlinesTonight.com, MultiMediaMouth.com was created in 2009 by Chris Nelson. In 2016, Chris Nelson sold MultiMediaMouth.com to Ruben Jay. We now cover entertainment from all angles. Make sure to follow us for all forms of amazing content.